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Friday, January 27, 2012

The waves crash upon the shore in a constant rhythm, sounding like the thunder of a storm close to home. In it I feel the thrust and recourse of the waves as they push me toward and away from the shore.

Afterward, that pulse continues living within my body. I feel the rolling of the waves pushing and pulling in the air around me. With the waves coming in, there is a stillness of the mind. The undertow brings forth a stream of ideas, quickly flowing out to sea, you try to grab onto them before they flow away under the waters lost forever making way for a new wave of stillness arriving in it’s wake. In this, many thoughts and images come from my own depths, only to be lost a moment later in the flow of energy.

The night here has a different quality. Back home, in the dark, I see black splotched with bits of red and blue. Here the nighttime has a mist of white everywhere like a shroud fogging the air. That same whiteness permeates the daylight making you feel like the veils are different colored dupattas, the red, blue and black at home and here one of white. The air teasing you with floating and tugging sensations.

Reggae, heavy metal, trance, dance, disco and Bollywood music shuffles in the open-air café and somehow, it works. Mainly because layer after layer of stress is washing away, in some cases sandblasted. Everything seems less important. We should all live like this.

In the past 24 hours, I’ve been visited by both the Gods of India, and the Lwa of Vodou, each time needing to come forth for completely different reasons. Much is active here.

I feel myself floating to the surface. I gather new perspectives with the tides flowing everywhere. I feel the hand of Agwe. Swimming, breathing, floating, sitting, walking everything around is alive, the brightness following couche.

We’ve named the geckos here, Twitchy and Upside-down Sally. We hide from the mosquitoes, who eventually own the night. The moon as a crescent chalice, Orion seems upside down – he must be an inspiration for Sally.

How can it be photographed? How can it be described? One must travel to see and feel. One must be changed by it to truly understand.

As I read this, I felt as if I were there with you. I have never been at the shore of the sea. But I have found the shore to be a place, no matter what the body of water, of magic -- of in between earth and water, where anything can happen. I have dreamed of Gods arriving to the shore, carried by the waves, coming up to meet me, or I've stood by watching them meeting with friends.

I know someday when I am at the shore of the sea, it will be an awakening, something like a wedding, with drumming and dancing!

No matter what, I love the shore. Thank you for introducing me to this shore. I still see it in my mind.